Purpose: Throughout the class we looked at situations where the macroeconomic information/data may not be wholly accurate. Remember the Sex, Drugs, and GDP article below? If you can recall the purpose of including these illicit activities is to help decrease their (Debt/GDP) ratio which will make their economies look much better than what it really is. Some of these statistics/information/data is not that accurate.
I want you to
1) pick a country and
2) take a look at their economy as whole and report their relevant statistics (inflation, unemployment, business cycles, and economic growth). While you're doing your research do you find any anomalies of what's being reported? Is what's being reported true? Is it due to something else perhaps changing the methodology of their calculation?
1. Look at the economy's economic growth rate and see if it grew substantially after a time period. Why? For example when Japan (after the Tokugawa period) opened up their economy for more trade their economy grew substantially. This was more to due to economic activity and not because the methodology to calculate their GDP was changed.
2. China's economic growth (per the article below) could be due to other reason like inaccurate data or unreliable data gathering.
3. In Argentina due to changing methodologies and political pressure the inflation rate has always changed and due to this has been deemed not reliable. (See article below).
4. The India example below is changing the base year (for comparison purposes) and this could make their economy grow much more than previously reported. Why do you think they did this change?
5. But it's not just developing economies doing changes in their methodologies. Take a look at the article below on the U.S. GDP.
Sissi:
o What country did you pick? -> India
o Why did we choose that country?
o Background of that country and its economy
o Public face? (other countries)
o Trustworthy or not? Overview
o Inflation rate, fake or not fake, why?
Wasim:
o What was the economic growth rate the past years in that country? Import, Export
o What was the inflation rate the past years in that country?
o Environment and other data they may fake
o (Rape rate, Police statistics)
o What was the unemployment rate the past years?
Shelley:
o What was the business cycle like the past years, fake or not fake? Why?
o When collecting your data did you see any anomalies when comparing with other sources? If so like what?
o Why are they faking their data?
o Utilize data from the country you are researching and compare it with other data providers (World Bank)
o Conclusion: Good or bad country